Fallow Ground

In praying for the lost, You brought to my mind Romans 5:7-8:
:7 "for one will hardly die for a righteous man, for perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die,
 :8 but God demonstrated His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
What came to my mind was the hardness of heart, the fallow ground in the heart of the one I was praying for. How all his life he lived the first part of this scripture..."all of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us have gone his own way,...but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. Is 53:6

What man, who on this earth would be crucified, the most lowly, cruel, humiliating way to die, and to suffer the deepest most painful separation from God His Father, for someone that hated Him, for a criminal, an enemy of Him? Romans 5:7 says "perhaps for a good man...." but there is ONLY one sacrifice... Hebrews 10:12 that has redeemed all sinners if they choose to receive Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 2:24 and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness;
Jesus Christ was willing to "carry...up to the cross" my sin, your sin, the sin of the whole world for even those who do not seek Him now, for those with hardened hearts toward Him, who despise Him.

 People who have not experienced the salvation through Jesus Christ, are according to God's word, blinded by the devil, (2 Cor 4:3-4) and their hearts are fallow ground.
 Hosea 10:12 ...in speaking to Israel whose hearts had turned away from Him... "Break up your fallow ground for it is time to seek the LORD...
 Fallow means "untilled" ground; hardened; Break up meaning "freshly till".

In other words, yield to God so that He can sow goodness, truth, righteousness and salvation into the soil of one's heart and the blindness be lifted to see "the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." This is the only place His Glory will be found!

A Slight Thing

2 Kings 8 tells us of the battle of Israel against Moab involving three kings. King of Israel, Jehoram, King of Judah, Jehoshaphat and King of Edom, (at that time a tributary of Israel) went up against Moab to battle. As always it is amazing at the absolute power God displayed. The LORD is mighty to do according to His will!

After deciding to go up against Moab, the 3 kings above traveled for 7 days (2 kings 3:9) and there was no water for cattle and men.

They called upon Elisha to inquire of the LORD.  The message from the LORD was for them to make the valley full of trenches. Then without wind or rain, God filled those trenches to supply water for them.

What amazed me was that the LORD tells them “This is but a slight thing in the sight of the LORD”.

A SLIGHT thing! To fill the dry trenches with water.! Verse :20 says “behold, water came by the way of Edom, and the country was filled with water.”  God can do anything!!

When Moab looking out to where Israel was camped, saw the water it looked like blood. Only God could make them see it like that!

Then the Moabites thought that the kings had shed one another’s blood and that encouraged them to attack the camp of the kings. When the they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites arose and struck them down. Thus Moab was defeated in that battle.

Father You display Your compassion and power in all this.

Three kings: king of Israel, Jehoram, was evil in the sight of the LORD. The king of Edom was a heathen. But Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, had favor in Your eyes. (3:14}.

Because of Jehoshaphat, who was the one that wanted to inquire of the LORD, Elisha spoke to them and answered their inquiry.  

God’s favor on Jehoshaphat and His power to defeat the enemy shows His compassion toward His chosen people; it shows for us today that He is able to orchestrate circumstances for victories in our life.  Also always, Jesus being our High Priest at His right hand interceding for us.

The battle is never ours but it belongs to Him. We stand on victorious ground. We do not fight against the enemy because God has already won that battle by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Victory is now His forever.

As believers, God sees us as His chosen, covered with the blood of Jesus Christ and He works His power within us expressing His love, grace, and compassion to help and deliver us in the time of need.

We can have total confidence in a living God that knows our every need and cares about the details of our lives. He is the One true Living God!

Eph 3:20 Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us,

:21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever.

Do Not Fear

Numbers 14:9,27

Two things stood out: Unbelief and grumbling; and the effect it has on our children.

God repeatedly told the Israelites through Joshua and Caleb …: 9”do not be afraid...do not fear the people of the land”.

The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron…:27 I have heard the complaints of the sons of Israel which they are making against Me.

God repeats “do not fear, do not be afraid” many times in the Bible as he did to the Israelites on entering the Promised Land. 

Why should we not be afraid? Because we have a Savior, the Risen Lord Jesus Christ who has conquered death, sin, the devil and the curse!

Fear is a spirit that brings death. Death that we may not recognize because it comes in so many different forms. When allowed to, it establishes itself in our soul. It feeds unbelief.

Jesus is our Warrior that has defeated completely all forms of fear and death. Think of Him who has Risen, the glorious, majestic Lord Jesus as when the Apostle John saw Him.

Rev:14 His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire

: 15 His feet were like burnished bronze when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters…..

: 17 The Apostle John fell at His feet like a dead man…

And He said “Do not be afraid, I am the first and the last,

And the living One; and I was dead and behold, I am alive forevermore….” Rev 1:14-18

Keeping this vision of Jesus in our hearts and encouraging our own hearts as well as others with it, will stifle fear, unbelief and every kind of complaint. Jesus has already won the battles for us and is forever faithful to us who believe in Him. His plans for us are for good and not for evil….Jer 29:11.

Grumbling and complaining will influence our children, for they learn by our examples.

Ultimately the words of complaint are against the Lord who is able to turn everything around for good.

How much better to give them a vision of Jesus Christ, who is the Prince of Peace, and the One who is our Shepherd and loves us so very deeply?

Father, help us, Your beloved ones to “continually offer up a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that give thanks to Your name.” Hebrews 13:15

During the Time

1 Peter 1:17

If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth.

We are sojourners aliens on this earth. The apostle Peter says "during the time" of your stay on earth.
This stood out as a reminder of this very important truth. For believers in Jesus Christ we will be going to our true home, to Him who died for us, who rose from the dead for us and is now interceding for us at the right hand of the Father.
A truth that enables those in the world that are being persecuted for their faith in Christ to endure to the end. A truth that reminds all believers of this very short time we live on this earth.

This phrase “during the time of your stay on earth”… implies the reality that we are only temporarily here on earth and are going somewhere else. That somewhere else is home to be with You, Father. What great hope this gives us!

Your word refers to believers in Christ, the Risen as:

(Various translations use these words here below in speaking of the faithful believers in Hebrews 11:13, and in Eph 2:19)

Pilgrims,

strangers,

exiles,

foreigners

visitors

sojourners

aliens

Jesus Christ, Your Son, has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into His own Kingdom. (Col.1:13)

We now belong to Him. to His kingdom, to live as citizens of another country which is a heavenly country, a lasting city whose architect and builder is God, Who has prepared that city for us (Hebrews 11:10, 14,16).

This is Truth: 1 Peter 1:3-5…God…. has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,….:4 to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you

:5 who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Note from the Hebrew Key Study Bible on 1 Peter 1:5 “We are being guarded by God who is in heaven while through faith we are awaiting our LIBERATION from earth”.

Henry Alford, (1810-1871) an English bible scholar chose this inscription for his tombstone, "the inn of a traveler on the way to Jerusalem".

Help me Father to walk mindful of the temporary life and journey on this earth.
It is but a moment in eternity.

1 Peter 1:24 All flesh is like grass

And all its glory like the flower of grass,

The grass withers,

And the flower falls off

But the Word of the LORD endures forever.

Endured

Hebrews 12:2 ..fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the Cross....
The word "endure" is interesting in this passage.

Greek #5278 hupomeno-
...to remain, to tarry behind
...to persevere: under misfortunes and trials to hold fast to one's faith in Christ
...to endure, bear bravely and calmly: ill treatments
...to remain i.e.: abide not to recede or flee
  Jesus remained in the circumstances the Cross brought Him to
  He held fast to His faith and confidence in the Father
  He bore bravely and calmly the ill treatment of those He came to save; calmly in the sense He
      submitted to the humiliation of it       
 He did not flee from the Cross

Father, Your Holy Son Jesus did not turn away from the Cross, from Your will in which You took pleasure to crush Him (Isaiah 53:10) for my sake. Step by step He fully obeyed.

How else can the glory of God be manifested in all of its purity but by being in the will of the Father?
Pure without the stain of human interference or resistance.

Help me Father to obey Your Holy Spirit's promptings.

Thy Will, O God

 The thought came to my mind about Jesus at the right hand of the Father in eternity past. Jesus is One with the Father and Col 1:16 says that all things have been created for Him (Jesus) and through Him.

So in seeing Him sitting at the Father's right hand and the time for Jesus to leave His seat there and come to earth....would we dare to think there was a discussion about it? In our earthly minds we would have asked "Well, where am I going? How long am I staying? What am I going to do? Will they believe who I AM?
No! Jesus did the perfect will of the Father without any discussion because He is One with the Father
Hebrews 10:5-6 says
             Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, 
              "Sacrifice and offering Thou hast not desired,
                But a body Thou hast prepared for Me;
            :6 In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin
                 Thou hast taken no pleasure.
            :7 "Then I said 'Behold I have come (In the roll of the book it is written of Me) to do 
                 Thy will, O God.' " 
Hebrews 10:12 ..but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the 
right hand of God .  

He knew from eternity past the plan for mankind, that the Father had prepared Him a body
 for man's redemption.
 
The point in all this is that it brought home the fact that when the Holy Spirit prompts us to do
something the Father really doesn't need His children to question and have a lengthy discussion
about what He is directing us to do.

The spontaneity of God in us will always be a blessing to someone and will have a purpose that we may understand or not understand. The important thing is to obey the prompting without hesitancy, doubt, or fear of what man will think.

Father, I simply ask the grace to obey Your promptings and to do Your will.

Continually With You

Ps 73:25 And besides You I desire nothing on earth.

This Psalm has the most beautiful expression of David’s knowledge that when his eyes and heart are on You, Your presence fulfills him.

In this Psalm His eyes are on the wicked and how they prosper and have the “good life”.

73:12 ..And always at ease, they have increased in wealth.

:21 My heart was embittered and I was pierced within.

His heart was “soured”, swollen with what his eyes were seeing. He was pierced, meaning like a sword that was “sharp” that had given him much pain.

But then his heart and mind are turned toward You our Mighty God.

These verses stood out:

:23 Nevertheles I am continually with you

:25 And besides You I desire nothing on this earth.

:28 But as for me, the nearness of God is my good

You are speaking to me about the presence of God fulfilling every hunger, every need that Your children have. Experiencing Your presence in our daily lives will bring great joy and contentment no matter how routine or troublesome the day is.  When we have our mind and heart set on You, Your love is actively working in us Your will and Your thoughts as we go through the day. 

Proverb 16:3 (amp) says that when we commit our works to You .. He will  cause your thoughts to be agreeable to His will. 

You are able to make us to live above the human emotions that hide Your face from us.

Thank You for Your presence and teaching me to walk in the awareness of Your life within.